Sean standing in front of an interesting "Hell" advertisement in East London Oct. 4, 2008. He is a pathetic victim of situational poverty, but he likes to travel. What does he and others like him do?We set out to blog about cheap travel.

I was very caught up in the idea of a single language for a single nation, at least in the developed world.

English. Spanish. German. French. Japanese. Chinese.

A monolithic people speaking a single language in a single place. Of course it gets more complicated, but I didn’t think I would come across those complexities in Western Europe - the mother of much of mainstream American culture.

I am dodgy. I can accept it. So, I didn't go into this London bar on Brick Lane Oct. 3, 2008.

I am hot tempered.

I cringe over costs. Accept them. You are in an unfamiliar place. You will be short 30 pence for a bus ride home in London and get stuck putting 3 pounds on your Oyster card, with an additional $3 charge for using your credit card abroad.

What do you want out of your travel? How do you want to represent yourself and your country. Traveling will make you learn plenty about yourself, which is good because it is rarely as important as when you’re seeing the world.